Abstract

This investigation is a new approach to the assessment of the richly-ornamented book-covers of the early Christian Church. Pictorial data on approximately seventy five covers of actual books together with a similar number of pictures of books portrayed by artists in contemporary carvings, mosaics and paintings have been analysed as a group. This enabled attention to be directed to the geometrical structures and arrangements of the ornamental features of the cover decoration and avoided the problems intrain when considering them purely as works of art.

The results of this research have enabled several distinct trends and watersheds in the design structure to be distinguished which have potential for improving the dating of such book bindings. These include, the significance of border decoration as an indicator of date and the techniques with which jewels and gemstones were arranged and mounted. It is believed that with these techniques considerable new possibilities exist for more substantial analysis of the covers of these unusual books.